BCV Online Checkin Room Request - Large Balcony?

[MDFam]

Hi! Fairly new DVC members here. We are staying at BCV for the first time in just a few weeks in a 1BR! I was just doing online checkin and looking at the room request options and had two questions.

1) One of the room requests is "large balcony". I assumed all balconies for a given room size would be the same so can anyone tell me whether some BCV 1BR balconies are larger than others and, if so, whereabouts are those rooms?

2) "Canal View" - looking at a map, it appear canals run on the sides of BCV facing EPCOT and on the "U" side surrounding the quiet pool/facing the parking lot. Is it correct that "canal view" could mean a room on either of those sides of the building?

Thanks very much!

 

[iteachlit]

We own at SSR, but we have stayed at BCV. I'll try my best to answer your questions.


1. Some villas will have small balconies, no bigger than the sliding door that leads to it. There's barely room for two chairs. A few villas have balconies that span the living area to the bedroom. We stayed in a dedicated two bedroom and had a large balcony as described above. The second BR, IIRC, had a small detached balcony. We had a view of the courtyard overlooking the entrance to the resort.

2. I think three views are available: canal, courtyard and pool. The pool view is of the villas pool, not Stormalong Bay.

I'm sure someone will be along to add more details.

 

[MDFam]

Thanks for the information, Mike! I was thinking when I started the online checkin process I would request pool view, but here are the options for BCV when doing online checkin:
Room Requests
You may select up to 2 room requests.

• Large Balcony
• Ground Floor
• Upper Floor
• Lower Floor
• Near Elevator
• Canal View
• Woods View

No courtyard or pool views given as an option. So then I wondered what some of these meant!

Would hate to get stuck with a really tiny balcony; we (family of four) enjoyed sitting on our OKW balcony in the morning and evening last time we went. Now that you mention it, though, we also stayed at BWV for a few nights, and that balcony was fairly small (which ended up not mattering as it was unusable anyway - a standard view immediately above the luggage loading area - terrible room all the way around unfortunately.)

 

[iteachlit]

I just looked at the satellite image of the resort. My guess is that a canal room looks out to the canal that runs parallel to Epcot Resorts Blvd. Woods view likely faces the wooded area between the villas and the BC. I don't know why pool or courtyard aren't choices. The canal runs near the pool, so perhaps that area is included.

The best DVC balcony I ever had was at HHI. It was huge with a picnic table, two big rocking chairs and a fan!

 

[iteachlit]

Check out this thread for some info. It looks like Disney has added some view categories since the thread was started.


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2339905

 

[Simba's Mom]

Hi! Fairly new DVC members here. We are staying at BCV for the first time in just a few weeks in a 1BR! I was just doing online checkin and looking at the room request options and had two questions.

1) One of the room requests is "large balcony". I assumed all balconies for a given room size would be the same so can anyone tell me whether some BCV 1BR balconies are larger than others and, if so, whereabouts are those rooms?

2) "Canal View" - looking at a map, it appear canals run on the sides of BCV facing EPCOT and on the "U" side surrounding the quiet pool/facing the parking lot. Is it correct that "canal view" could mean a room on either of those sides of the building?

Thanks very much!

Good idea! When we stayed in a 1 BR at BCV, we had two balconies, one off the LR and one off the BR, which weren't connected and were very small. I took a picture and when I get home from work I can post it. Ironically, later that week I moved to a studio, which had a much larger balcony than the two 1 BR balconies combined.

 

[MDFam]

Thanks again, Mike, and Simba's Mom for your thoughts. I just called MS and spoke to a very nice man who made some written annotations for me on my reservation. However he was not sure either what exactly canal view was and guessed both sides of the villas would be eligible (side facing Epcot and inner "U" facing parking lot.). He also wasn't sure about what large balcony request meant in terms of how large or how many large vs small balconies etc. I guess calling MS is the only way to request what you actually want vs just using online checkin. We will have a great time regardless of which room we get, I know!

 

[Simba's Mom]

Got home-here's the balcony size of the 1BR we had (but we had 2 of these)-

 

[bakerworld]

Our last stay at BCV the room was really convenient to the elevator for the DVC pool with the balcony looking out towards the back of innovations. The balcony was considered a 'full' size but it barely fit 2 chairs. Previously we had a room with a balcony that faced the sidewalk to the parking lot on your rght and left was DVC pool with a balcony that ran the whole width of the room, which I liked better but the room itself was at the end of a long hallway. I didn't mind the walk but I kept getting lost which increased the trek to the room.

 

[MDFam]

Thanks for the picture, Simba's Mom! I am guessing those are not considered the large balconies . I will try to find out more when I Check in about the room request types. I am going to check in at the front desk even though I have sort of done online checkin. Excited about our first stay at BCV! Preceded by our first stay at VWL, five nights at each!